world, it is interesting the exchange of information neighbor to neighbor. and when you look at the millions of people who have watched debates, whether the one last night or the ones that we've hosted, it is an incredible exchange of information outside of our comfort zone. so you've done a great job on the road. we'll see the rest of your reports. that does it for this incredible hour. thank you so much for joining me live in my home state of texas in austin. i'll be back live here tomorrow. "mtp daily" starts now #. if it's friday, the man dominating the republican race is a wwe hall of famer.ç so is nature boy rick flair and marco rubio apparently knows what rick flair has always said. if you want to be the man, you have got to beat the man. walk that aisle, baby. whoo! it's "mtp daily" and it starts right now.

>> should i have done any whoo a little bit longer? we'll see what nature boy thinks. i'm chuck todd in washington and welcome to "mtp daily." wow, what a -- should we say 24 hours or 15 hours. rubio dropped an opo dump at last night's debate and trump fired back with an explosion of insults and mockery and a potentially game-changing endorsement. today new jersey governor, former presidential candidate, and card-carrying member of the republican establishment, chris christie, threw his support behind donald trump. not surprisingly, it was a carnival-like atmosphere deep in the heart of texas today. and christie wasted no time tearing into a one-time rival, marco rubio.ç >> texas, i'm here today to proudly say, i endorse donald trump for president of the united states! do we need a united states senator for florida who doesn't show up for work? >> no!

>> let me tell something to marco rubio. president of the united states is not a no-show job, like you treated the united states senate. >> wow. folks, look, this is a big deal. endorsements in general are overrated. however, timing and symbolism matter. and trump's campaign is acting like a front-runner juggernaut. having this endorsement, a day after rubio's attack, and last night's debate is pretty smart and pretty smooth. this endorsement could be as important to trump in both timing and symbolism as ted kennedy endorsement was for barack obama in 2008. it came right before super tuesday then. to that point, former republican house speaker newt gingrich tweeted this today, that, quote, the chris christie endorsement of trump is a real signal to the gop establishment that they had better begin thinking about trump as the future. well, trump was just getting started. after christie made his endorsement, trump ripped into rubio, calling him a liar,ç a choke artist and more. he said rubio sweats under pressure, he mocked rubio for that famous water bottle moment

from that 2013 state of the union response, and he did a whole lot more. here he goes. >> when you're a choke artist, you're always a choke artist. it doesn't really change. it's rubio! i sweated! unbelievable. >> there is no other word to use. that is unbelievable. this is the wwe. the rubio campaign quickly fired back, top adviser todd harris saying this, quote. donald trump can't put a coherent noun and verb together to explain any of his policies or business dealings, so he had to bring in someone like chris christie to try to do it for him. and then rubio continued to attack trump, while talking with reporters in oklahoma city. take a listen to this. >> it's about the idea that the party of reagan and the

conservative movement can fall into the hands of someoneç who a con man, who's pulling the ultimate con job on the american public. this is a guy who claims to stand for the working class, when, in fact, his entire business career, he's been sticking it to working class americans. my point to you is that we're not going to let someone like that take over the conservative movement after everything that this party has gone through and this country has gone through. the last thing we need is a con man as president. >> con man. wow. then, we saw rubio really tear into trump, in a way we haven't seen before. he took a page from trump's playbook, by openly mocking trump for, quote, melting down during last night's debate. >> you want some behind-the-scenes stuff. >> yeah! >> we had two commercial breaks in the middle of all of this combat on the stage. he looks like -- he was in panic mode in the back. first he put out this little makeup compact, because he had a sweat mustache. and then he asked for a full-length mirror.

i was like, why do you need a full-length mirror, the podium goes up to here. maybe his pants were wet or something. not a good night for donald trump. he was melting down, all çrigh? >> i guess if you're going to beat trump, you have to be trump. folks, you can't help but wonder if that's what they believe. beating trump, you have to become him. just moments ago, ted cruz reacted to the christie endorsement. here's what he had to say. >> i think the endorsement was, uh, no doubt troubling news for the rubio campaign. i like chris. i don't think the endorsement was a big surprise to many observers. our focus is real simple, uniting conservatives in the super tuesday states, and i don't think this endorsement has any significant impact on that. >> boy, he's had better backdrops before. more now on trump's juggernaut of a campaign. new numbers just out from our new nbc news survey monkey online survey. he's creeping to 40% now. rubio's at 21. cruz at 19. car singh and kasich sitting

back at 8% each. we've also got some fascinating insight into how trump supporters stack up against the overall american electorate and republicans. and we did some survey work here. for instance, 67% have an unfavorable view of -- trump supporters have an unfavorable view of american muslims, almost twice as many who say that all voters. 87% of trump supporters support a temporary ban against all muslims who aren't u.s. citizens from entering the united states. again, that's almost twice as many who say that among all voters. 55% of trump voters believe immigrants, illegal immigrants working in the u.s. should be deported. again, that's almost twice as many who say that among all voters. and 45% describe themselves as pro-choice, by the way, on abortion. that's 11 points higher than the response on abortion among all republicans. and 50% of trump's supporters want to raise the minimum wage to either $10 or $15 an hour. that's actually on par with the sentiment among all republicans. all today's big newses comes

after the rubio campaign through the opo at trump. they gathered intel on failed business ventures, they went after trump's inheritance. we're talking about the works here. rubio got mocked for repeating himself, but you're definitely going to see rubio repeat these attacks over and over again, at least until march 15th. so let's dig into a few of them. let's begin withç this shot fr rubio, accusing trump of running a fraudulent university. >> there are people -- >> let me just tell you -- >> hold on, one at a time. >> -- trump university and they're suing him in and out. $36,000 to go to a university that's a fake school. >> and by the way -- and by the way -- >> and you know what they got? they got to take a picture of a cardboard cutout of donald trump. >> trump university is a civil case. it's a case where people want to try to get -- it's a case that is nonsense. >> let's break this all down. there was indeed something called trump university that trump started back in 2005.

it failed and landed trump in legal hot water. the first problem, it was branded as a, quote, university, but it was not an official university. it wasn't accredited and it had no authority to happened out degrees. it was a serious of business seminars. as "the washington post" reported last year, a class action suit was filed in california by a former trump university student named art cohen who said he spent more than $36,000 on courses that failed to deliver the top-notch education the university had promised, unquote. trump is actually slated to testify in that case perhaps later thisç campaign year. now, trump is right when he describes this as a civil case, but there's more than one case out there. in 2013, new york attorney general eric snyderman sued trump and the university, accusing trump of, quote, engaging in persistent, fraudulent, illegal, and deceptive conduct, unquote, and here is where rubio likely got that tidbit about the cardboard cutout of trump. snyderman alleged that, quote, instead of a personal appearance from donald trump as some consumers were led to expect, some participants got their

photographs taken with a life-sized photo of mr. trump. then there was this. rubio hit trump where it really hurts, by going after trump's wealth. let's watch. >> here's a guy that inherited $200 million. if he hadn't inherited $200 million, you know where donald trump would be right now? selling watches in manhattan. >> no, no, no. no, no, no. that is so wrong. we'll work on that. i took $1 million and i turned it into $10 billion -- >> oh, okay, $1 million. >> all right. let's dig into this one. rubio's opo on trump's inheritance. "the wa$)á believe he is a self-made man, it was actually his father, fred trump, who built the real estate empire that donald trump took over in 1974. at the time, it was worth about $200 million, which trump and his four siblings ultimately inherited after enjoying a sizable trust funds for years. now, trump fired back during a press conference today,

disputing the $200 million figure. and he also noted that the amount was split among his sibli siblings. bottom line here, there's no doubt that trump built a wide-reaching real estate empire, but it isn't a rags-to-riches story, it's really a rich-to-richer story. additionally, trump's finances and his net worth have been notoriously hard for fact checkers to verify for decades. the next thing we saw was rubio attack trump as a phoney on immigration using this piece of opo. >> he hired workers -- >> you liar -- >> -- workers from poland and had to pay $1 million in a judgment -- >> that's wrong. totally wrong. >> people can look it up. i'm sure people are googling right now. trump/polish workers, fined $1 million for hiring illegal weerks on one of his projects. >> wrong. wrong. >> okay. so this one goes back more than 30 years. 3p he new york times" cove this story extensively when it happened. in their fact check last night, they wrote this, quote, in 1980, mr. trump did hire around 200 undocumented polish workers to

demolish the bonwit terrell building on fifth avenue in manhattan which was done to make way for the trump tower. mr. trump blamed any violations on the demolition contractor, whom he said he later fired. baa judge ruled that mr. trump had, indeed, withheld about $4 million from the workers. mr. trump ultimately settled the lawsuit. the agreement between the two sides was sealed. since it's sealed, we don't know where rubio is getting his figure that trump settled for $1 million. and finally, we have trump's taxes. i guess you've got to credit mitt romney for blowing the lid off of this one. he alleged a quote, bombshell could be hiding flump's filings, which both rubio and cruz used against trump. >> i will absolutely give my return, but i'm being audited now for two or three years, so i can't do it until the audit is finished, obviously. and i think people would understand that. >> donald says he's being audited. well, i would think that would underscore the need to release those returns. if he has said something that was false and that anç audit i going to find is fraudulent, the

voters need to know. >> so, does trump really have to wait until the audit is done? the irs put out this statement today. quote, federal privacy rules prohibit the irs from discussing individual tax matters. nothing prevents individuals from sharing their own tax information. and although some tax lawyers say there are prudent reasons not to release taxes, though during an audit. joining me now from new york and fresh off the campaign trail himself, i got to see which college sweatshirt is he wearing today, my buddy steve kornacki. >> none. >> none? maybe a little fordham. you're in new york city, maybe a little fordham, nyu. >> i prefer public schools. >> maybe brook. >> that's a public school. all right. >> when i first got to know you, you were covering the mean streets of jersey politics. explain the rationale of chris christie being a donald trump man. >> there's a couple things going on here. there's familiarity between the two of them that goes back a few years that predates this campaign. there's also an opening here,

it's unusual, as you know, for a candidate to be in the position donald trump is, as well-positioned as he is to win the çnomination, without basically having any real big-name elected officials behind him. there's an opening there for chris christie to kind of play a bigger role, than maybe somebody endorsing at this point usually would. but the other thing here, what i learned about chris christie early on is that he doesn't forget things. he doesn't forget slights. he doesn't forget people who tried to stop him along the way. and i keep thinking to what happened in new hampshire. chris christie pinned his entire presidential campaign on new hampshire, on doing the town halls, on doing it the retail way, and he was getting traction. he was getting traction in december. union leader endorsement, moving up in the polls. and then what hit? the marco rubio super pac. they took note of his rise in the polls. they stopped his momentum. christie reads it certainly that way, that they stopped his momentum with those super pac ads. and basically, i think chris christie's read is, i would have won or come close in new hampshire and been on my way to seriously competing for this nomination if it wasn't for marco rubio and i don't think he's forgotten that still.

>> the irony to this is jeb bush's super pac had that ad ready to go, a similar version, and word is even kasich's campaign had something similar to go, just happened that rubio struck first. steve, i want to play a little bit -- we put together a mashup of all the things christie said about trump whilmç christie wasa presidential candidate. take a listen and i want to have you explain how he'll rationalize some of these critiques. >> donald says he's going to build the wall and he's going to get peento to pay for it. how? he said, everyone's going to get so marvelously rich that we don't have to worry about social security, not for a minute. we're going to fix it. you know that there's not really a boardroom where he and ivanka and eric and donny sit, right? you know that when he says, "you're fired," you're not really fired. because it's not real! you need to have your vote, with all due respect, be more than just an expression of anger. we make that mistake, we could wind up turning over the white

house to hillary clinton for four more years. you think you're angry now? >> the one line that really grabs me, based on what you were saying about rubio, because i agree with you, i think that's what it is. you don't want to base your vote on anger. but did he base his endorsement on it? >> i think there's a big part of that. and the other thing here, there's a couple of -- there's a bunch of ironies in this. here's another one. chris christie, when he got and he mentioned ivanka trump, donald trump's daughter. this is what a small world we live in. chris christie, when he was u.s. attorney in new jersey, one of

the things he made his name on, was going after and taking down one of the top political donors in the country, a real estate developer named charles kushner, where charles kushner's son is named jared kushner and his wife's name is ivanka trump. >> all in the bizarre, wild world of the political family now that is trump/christie. steve kornacki, great is stuff, sir. and welcome home. >> thank you. >> nice to have you back. >> thank you. >> we'll see you up there on sunday. >> all right. coming up, just over 24 hours until the south carolina polls close. they have to open, and then they'll close.ç can bernie sanders keep it close? we'll crunch some numbers, next. and then the inside story. republican strategist rick tyler joins me live for his first interview since his departure from the cruz campaign. stay tuned.

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i mean, this is a guy that's taken trump airlines bankrupt, trump vodka, nobody wanted it. trump mortgage was a disaster. trump university was a fraud.

>> that was marco rubio this morning on the "today" show, mocking donald trump for many of the products that he's put his name on over the years. well, coming up here later on "mtp daily," the latest edition of our "making of a candidate" series. trump's history as a pitchman and how trump, the man, became trump, the brand. we'll be right back. ♪ in new york state, we believe tomorrow starts today. all across the state, the economy is growing, with creative new business incentives, and the lowest taxes in decades, attracting the talent and companies of tomorrow. like in buffalo, where the largest solar gigafactory in the western hemisphere will soon energize the world. and in syracuse, where imagination is in production. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today - at business.ny.gov

less than 14 hours now before polls open in south carolina. both hillary clinton and bernie sanders are stumping in the palmetto state, at this hour. clinton is holding a get out the vote event right in and out at south carolina state university, and right now sanders is holding a get out the vote event . sanders is trying to keep he has primary hopes alive, but to do that, sanders would need to win a large portion of the african-american vote. in fact, he would need to win roughly 44% of south carolina's black vote in order to come out with a win tomorrow. and that assumes a few things. let's say sanders is able to

repeat what he did in new hampshire, getting the support of 61% of whiteç voters. well, in a state like south carolina, where african-american voters outnumber white democrats, 55-43, according to that 2008 exit poll, sanders' 61% support among white voters would still give him just 26% of the total vote in tomorrow's primary. so, he would have to nab 44% of the african-american voter if he were to somehow overtake clinton. and right now sanders is getting -- while he's getting that high white voter share, it isn't a guarantee in south carolina. remember, the white vote in south carolina is very different than the one that gave sanders that new hampshire primary win. south carolina's white electorate is the same one that went for john edwards over both hillary clinton and barack obama in 2008. and then when it comes to south carolina's african-american vote, sanders has been far behind, with the last msnbc news/"wall street journal"/marist poll, we had clinton beating sanders among african-americans 68 to 21%.

clinton's even beating sanders among african-americans under the age of 45, leading 52-35. so it is an uphill battle, for even him to get into single digits. now it will beç moving on to super tuesday. joining me now is a hillary clinton supporter and a senator from a super tuesday state, al franken, democrat from minnesota. hello, sir. >> i liked your math segment. >> well, trying. you know, they say us people are journalists -- people in journalism don't do math very well. >> no, very impressive. >> people would describe you as a progressive, without a doubt. >> yes. >> you went hillary clinton over bernie sanders. is bernie sanders too progressive for you or why did you pick hillary clinton? >> i picked hillary clinton because i've known her for about 22, 23 years and she is the smartest person i know and the hardest-working person i know and the most experienced and toughest. and i think she would be the best president. ñi zoe loftgren, democrat in the house, said

something pretty tough about bernie sanders. she said, those who have served with him are supporting hillary clinton. why aren't more of his colleagues supporting him? >> well, you know, i serve with bernie, i like bernie, i just don't think that he would be effective as aç president. i think a lot of the things that he's proposing, we know just couldn't get done. and we need a lot -- this is a serious election. >> mm-hmm. >> and we need -- and we need a president who can do the entire job. and i believe hillary is that person. >> so bernie sanders, among the states he is targeting on super tuesday, he's sort of being selected, is minnesota. >> correct. >> he's running an ad specifically there that just launched. we've got a clip of it and it's on climate change. i want to play it. curious of your reaction on the other side. here it is. >> sanders said no to the keystone pipeline and never waffled. he's also the only candidate to oppose fracking, because

fracking can endanger our drinking water and threaten our climate. sanders has the most far-reaching plan to fight climate change and build a clean energy future. bernie sanders, people before politicians. >> he's targeting south carolina and minnesota with that ad. is that an ad that can be effective? >> i think so. climate change is an enormously important çissue. it's maybe the defining issue of our -- in the planet right now. so it's huge. but hillary is very strong on that, as well. and you know, and fracking is something that -- because of fracking, we have a lot of natural gas. and because of we have a lot of natural gas, it's replaced a lot of coal. >> where are you on fracking? i was going to say, because it has gotten a lot of -- i've talked to a lot of democrats who are describing it the way you describe it. >> i'm on the energy committee. >> yeah.

>> and fracking, it depends where you do it. and if you do it too close to a water table, it's a bad idea. but most of the fracking that we've been doing is what we've had a revolution in natural gas and because of that, we have lowered the cost of manufacturing in this country tremendously, because of electricity we do with very cheap natural gas. that's why i'm against exporting natural gas, because i want to keep the price low in minnesota. minnesota produces no fossil fuels whatsoever. but we use a lot of naturalç g in our manufacturing and it's been beneficial. now -- >> do you think there's been enough studies, though, on fracking? >> well, there have been a lot of studies on fracking. >> you feel comfortable, you feel like it's safe enough? >> yeah, there's issues about what is used in the water that goes down there and the use of water. i think there's an issue in oklahoma in terms of

earthquakes. so, it continues -- it needs to continue to be studied, but in terms of climate change, what we've seen is, it has replaced an awful lot of coal and has about half the co2 emissions of coal. so as a glide path toward an entirely renewable energy portfolio, it's actually been very helpful. >> all right. i've got to ask you, trump the celebrity question, you're a person that came from the world of entertainment, but you, but you went knee-deep in policy and you went -- you didn't sort of infotain it. >> i think trump, he and i would have been had a very goodç substantiative debate about fracking right now, don't you think? >> i'm not going to comment on that. do you think you could have a substantiative debate? i think you're saying that with a little smirk on your face. >> well, yeah, i used to be in comedy. >> so i've heard. what do you make of this. the cultures have collided.

i joked with you before i came on, you left the world of satire, and now the satire has followed you into american politics. >> yeah, i like the job i have now, and the job i have is pretty serious. and you do want, i think you want someone as president who is -- studies, it is a very policy-oriented job. there probably isn't a more policy-oriented job in the government. and i think it's very important to have someone there who has a broad range of interests in policy and hillary clinton is that person. and she is someone -- remember when i said, she's the hardest working person i know? she can burrow into policy and knowsç it. and i want a president who can do that. >> but you're a reader of people. how do you -- why do you think trump has gotten traction?

>> oh, oh, that's a different -- >> yeah. >> oh, okay. >> i understand that. i'm not going to ask you to psychoanalyze trump, that's a very difficult thing for anybody. but why do you think he's getting -- >> well, he's -- he's tapped into a populist thing on the republican side. he, i think he's sort of reinvented how you can talk, how you just talk off the cuff and he seems impervious to any kind of attack. he can say things that are demonstrably not true over and over again and it doesn't seem to matter. and i think that those in your game and in prognostication, that's not what i do, but those in your game have gotten it wrong. but it's because, when someone says, you know, john mccain isn't a war hero, and says thousands -- >> a traditional politician, that would have been a death nell. >> yeah, boom.

and thousands;hjt muslims cheed the towers in 9/11 coming down, i mean, gone! he, somehow, has invented something, i think, and -- which sort of makes him impervious to the gaffe that -- everything he says just seems to make him stronger. >> well, that's been what we've noticed. >> now i almost got in the prognostication. >> you're not going to do it? >> you know, i wanted to talk a little bit about the supreme court, but we're not going to be able to do that? >> we're running out of time on that. what are the chances you get a nominee, actually, at least hearings? do you think you'll get it? >> i think they're better than a lot of people think, yeah. >> okay. i'll leave it there. senator al franken, good luck to you, sir. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. brian, rachel, and chris will have full coverage tomorrow of the south carolina democratic primary. that starts at 6:00 p.m. eastern. join me tomorrow on sunday, your local nbc station on that one.

ted cruz among my guests there. still ahead, our making of a candidate series continues, from pitchman to presidential candidate, how donald trump built a brand, even with brands that failed. stay tuned. single from the dizzcounts. ♪ cash money ♪ the biggest discountand ♪ the dizzcounts. safe driver, paperless, paid-in-full, multi-car and joey fatone. ♪ savin' you five hundred ♪ i'm savin' you five hundred we have auto-tune, right? oh, yeah. that's a hit! all: yeah!

still ahead on "mtp daily," former ted cruz spokesman rick tyler on what led to his dismissal from the campaign. but first, here's hampton pearson with the cnbc market wrap-up. >> we had stocks ending the day mixed. the dow falling by 57 points. the s&p 500 down by 3, but the nasdaq(aeding 8 points. all three indices finished up more than 1% for the week. the economy grew at a 1% annual rate in the fourth quarter. that's an improvement over earlier estimates, but just half of last quarter's 2% growth rate. and chairs of jcpenney jumped nearly 15% today. its quarterly results beat estimates and its guidance impressed investors. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. ♪ you're not gonna watch it! ♪

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welcome back to "mtp daily." since ted cruz's win in iowa, his republican rivals have been calling him a liar and attacking his campaign ethics. >> a culture exists within the cruz camp that would allow people to take advantage of a situation like this in a very dishonest way. >> if the republican party had any guts, they would have terminated cruz from that election. because, honestly, he cheated like a dog. >> well, he's lying. and i think it's disturbing. i said that at the debate. he's now literally just making things up. >> cruz and his allies have repeatedly pushed back on the accusations, but the turmoil ultimately cost cruz's communications director his job. here's what happened. last weekend, marco rubio exchanged word with a ted cruz staffer in the lobby of a columbia, south carolina, hotel. the staffer was reading the bible while sitting next to

cruz's father. the interaction was recorded by a university of pennsylvania student reporter. the audio was not clear and "thç daily pennsylvanian" quoted a subtitled version of the video with the misquote, got a good book there, not many answers in it. rick tyler tweeted out the video saying, watch marco rubio's awkward remark about the book. but the subtitles were wrong. rubio actually said, the book has all the answers in it. tyler took down his post and apologized to senator rubio, but the damage was done. cruz asked for his resignation on monday afternoon. cruz talked about firing tyler in an interview with showtime's "the circus" set to air this weekend. >> a campaign is like a family and it's a close team. and so that's difficult. rick is a good guy. but he made a serious error in judgment. and it was not one that could be justified. and so we had to take action.

and it's -- i feel bad for rick and his family that it occurred and it was -- it wasn't done out of malice, but it was a serious error of judgment. >> here with me now is rick tyler. he's now former cruz communications director. but he's also our newest political contributor here atç msnbc. rick, welcome. >> good to be here, chuck. >> i know we're ripping the band-aid off of here a little bit. so that version of events, where do you start with your regret? >> well, senator cruz is right. he had to do what he had to do. part of what he's built his campaign on is trust. and people do trust ted cruz, and i think that's why trump and rubio tried to attack that. and i made a judgment error. i apologized for it. i asked the staffer what rubio had actually said, and he told me, and when he did that, it was when i took it down. but by that time, you know, the -- >> it seems to me, in some ways, you were a victim of -- we had this fast news cycle.

and everything is intense right now in the campaign, you're in the middle of an intense campaign. do you find yourself, you've got basically caught up in a social media firestorm? >> yeah, a little bit. look, i'm not mad about it. i'm fine with it. the campaign is one of the greatest experiences of my life. i don't regret a minute of it. i wouldn't trade a second of it. i preserved all my relationships there. talked day -- >> doesn't look like it's a scorcher situation. >> no, not at all. >> is that genuine? >> yeah, in fact, the whole team, to a person, went out that night, you know, to sort of wish me farewell and good-bye, including jeff rowe, the campaign manager, and jeff made everybody tell a funny rick tyler story. it was a little bit like being at your own funeral. >> so is it not -- was it -- the way you paint it, is it -- do you think it was a genuine -- were you fired because he was disappointed in you or do you feel like you were fired because -- >> oh, no, he was --

>> -- because they had accumulated too much baggage? >> no, he was disappointed. it was a bad call in judgment. lki marco rubio is a bible-believing christian, i had no doubt about t that, and when i tweeted it, part of my judgment was i didn't realize how much that would be twisted up and blown up and it was. but it shouldn't have been done. i shouldn't have done it. and i regretted doing it and i went on national television and told senator rubio sorry about it. >> what's the advice you would give to a communications professional? and i say this in a -- you learned a tough lesson. >> yeah, yeah. >> andç we're living in a new crazy culture on media. >> right. >> where any little thing. i always say, every day, i tell this to my family. every day, i could be fired tomorrow. because it is that easy to see something -- >> right -- >> and you don't have -- and frankly, people won't stand behind you. people are quick to toss people overboard. >> you're a spokesperson, and the answer is, from now, or you're two siyllables from your next job or whatever it is.

you know. look, it's important never to lose your perspective and you can in a campaign. and it gets very intense. but, you know, look, it's -- i have no regrets. i wouldn't -- again, i wouldn't trade it for the world. it's been a remarkable experience. ted cruz is a remarkably gifted guy. i love his family. i love the whole family that they put together in houston. and i'll miss him. >> well, let's put your political analyst hat on. super tuesday is coming up. ted cruz has got -- he's got to do some winning. what does he have to do to not just survive super tuesday, but thrive? >> well, look, he has a path to victory. it's -- albeit, it's narrowed. he's -- you know, he's got to do well in texas, of course,ç andf he could win texas and something else, and then say, marco rubio were to win nothing, because marco has not won a single -- >> so if he can notch up two victories to rubio's none, that can suddenly make him the chief trump challenger? >> i think that's right. and if rubio goes to florida and

fails to win his home state, i think that would -- the campaign would begin to unravel a little bit. and somebody's got to get it down to trump and somebody else. >> i think that's really going to happen, though? >> i don't know! >> you've been saying it for months. >> nobody's predicted anything about this -- your job -- >> but part of it is, the reason people -- trump has been so successful, is he's, in a sense, he's taken it to washington. people are really hurt, they've been hammered out there, and he's the guy that seems to be like, i'll change things. i don't believe he will, but people will believe it and they're tired of the politici s politicians, tired of the way it works, so they're willing to give them donald trump. >> rick tyler, thanks for coming on. >> appreciate it. >> we'll be seeing you a lot over the next few months. thank you, sir. more "mtp daily" and a look at donald trump, the brand, right after this. which is why, for every american who's not being paid what they're worth... who's held back by student debt or a system tilted against them-

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business background makes him the perfect person to run the federal government as president. >> i've had an amazing relationship with politicians -- with politicians, both democrat and republicans, because i was a businessman. i've hired tens of thousands of people over my lifetime. tens of thousands -- >> many from other countries -- >> just be quiet, just be quiet. let me talk. i've hired people. nobody up here has tired -- >> senator cruz. >> but trump may be one of the most unique businessmen in the ç world, equal parts entertainer and entrepreneur. in today's "making of a candidate," we're taking a closer look at how trump the man became trump the brand. when he started it back in the '70s, trump medium hit it big. then he broke grown on the famous trump tower. not everything was a hit, like his atlantic city casinos that went bankrupt. but his real estate ventures have been profitable more often than not. according to forbes, his new york properties alone have valued at $2 billion. that's on top of his various other properties, including nine

hotels and 17 golf courses, some as far away as scotland and the uae. and as his public persona grew, trump realized that he himself had become a marketable commodity. and so was born trump, the tv pitchman. >> it's wrong, isn't it? >> but it feels so right. >> then it's a deal? >> yes, we eat our pizza the wrong way. >> hi, i'm donald trump to talk to you about the remarkable convenience of the visa check kard. >> this thing you've pulled off, it's amazing. a big 'n' tasty for just a dollar.ç what do you think of my trump home mattress collection by serta. you've got to be losing money on this. boys, welcome to the trump dome. this is just your office. >> cool it, johnny touchdown. >> and trump wasn't shy about slapping his name on his own products, either. you can buy trump band shirts, trump ties, trump cologne, trump cuff links. but one thing about the donald, he's not afraid to go big.

back in 1989, he launched trump airlines, a shuttle service along the east coast, that featured chrome seat belts and gold-colored bathroom fixtures. but it never made a dime and within a few years, that airline was gone. and then in 2005.dóiñi he launched his own university, called trump university. >> if you're going to achieve anything, you have to take action, and action is what trump university is all about. >> of course, legal action wasn't what he was referring to. and as we told you earlier, a series of lawsuits are now in the courts, claiming it defrauded thousands of students. and trump had his hand in tons of smaller ventures over the years, vodka, chocolate, tea, bottled water,ç eyewear, furniture, bedding, all have been sold with the trump name. you can even get your steak, trump style. >> trump's steaks are the world's greatest steaks and i mean that in every sense of the

world. believe me, i understand steaks. it's my favorite food. >> he's also released two board games. one based on his nbc show, "the apprentice," and one based on, well, himself. >> my new game is "trump: the game." >> "trump: the game," where you deal for everything you've ever wanted to own. because it's not whether you win or lose, it's whether you win. >> yes! >> but one of the most fascinating things about trump's business model these days is how heavily it does rely on the trump celebrity brand. consider this, of the 38 properties listed on the trump organization's website, 16 have disclaimers showing they aren't actually owned, developed, or sold by trump or his companies. instead, the owners of those properties just pay for the name. essentially a licensing fee, taking on all the risk, while trump profits no matter what. and the profits have incredible. incredible. the "washington post" reported

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time for the lid, let's bring in all "washington post" panel. political analyst and founder of the fix, chris, and right term columnist. welcome, "washington post." >> yes. >> chris christie. shocked, surprised, what? chris. >> so i saw on twitter, of course, chris christie has just walked out with donald trump, and i thought, is that -- is that possibly right? not -- it justç seems so different than the chris christie of new hampshire, which was donald trump is unable to do this job, he is unprepared, you know, he is not a serious person, he'll hand the office to hillary clinton. look, i know this is politics, i get that. at the same time, golly, that was a quick turn around. >> could it have been a bigger -- it's like rubio beat rubio a second time. christie beat rubio a second

time. >> first of all, let me agree with chris entirely. he could never be too cynical in this business, but even i who spent time was shocked by this. i don't think it's that big a deal. frankly, chris christie was very popular in the party as we saw before. secondly, you know, trump now has kind of a little bit of a mixed message. on one hand, non-politician, on the other hand, he has flipped things around. it is a half day story, maybe. >> symbolically, endorsement is over rated, except you can have timing of it, can matter. the timing of it couldn't have been better for trump or worst for rubio. >> so trump's timing is also good.

>> the fifth stage of grief, acceptance, doesn't this open the door. >> a lot of nonacceptance still happening. >> i hear you. >> when i saw it, and this goes to jennifer's point about backlash, but i don't think that will happen. i think donald trump is close to nominee. at the same time, the thing that occurred to me most is when al gore endorsed howard dean in, you know, i think it was late -- >> no. >> no, no. >> oh. >> i don't think it's that big a deal, but the surprise factor, it's all coming together, and then maybe it doesn't come together. >> it told me that we keep thinking that the trump campaign is not sophisticated. this was what -- >> he is doing somethingç righ >> campaigns have the ready. what do you do when you're having a bad day. do you have a trick in your bag. he had a pretty good trick in his bag.

>> this isn't trumpy, it's kind of -- >> we didn't think -- >> we didn't think he would do that. >> it's one card. not a pair, all right. >> it doesn't last the whole weekend. the debate for rubio was not a great moment, but the beginning of the next stage of the campaign. trump is not going to be able to -- >> that is -- >> as you saw today on the stump, rubio is having fun. mocking trump, integrating trump. he is going after his personalcñ finance, his -- you but know. >> he has a few hours. that's the problem. i just -- so we know rubio, what we know from exit polling, he does well among the late deciders. people with trump make them way long ago and lots of them. so i just wonder, it's like 72 hours, sure. but if let's say trump wins eight of the 12 or nine of the 12 states on super tuesday, i mean, effectively, that's it. iç think marco rubio and

everybody else in the field will look back, including chris christie who famously said, don't worry, my time is coming to attack donald trump. >> i heard him say that. it doesn't seem like it was that long ago. >> all right, "washington post" newsroom. we'll have to take a pause. >> we'll do it. >> all right, ruth, chris, jennifer, i appreciate it. we'll be back monday, "mtp daily" sunday, meet the press on your local nbc station and coming up right now, "with all due respect." i'm john helemann. >> and i'm mark halperin. with all due respect to everything else. >> texas, i'm here to proudly say i'm endorsing donald trump for president of the united states. dallas texas, where everything, including endorsements is bigger. this has